Exports increased over 25 pct to $20 billion in February

ANKARA

Turkey’s exports increased by 25.4 percent in February from the same month of 2021 to stand at $20 billion, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

The February reading points to a slight improvement in export performance compared to January. In the first month of the year, Turkey’s exports rose by 17.2 percent on an annual basis to $17.6 billion.

On a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, exports advanced by 4.2 percent in February from January.

The country’s foreign trade deficit was $7.9 billion, up from the foreign trade gap of $3.3 billion in February 2020.

Germany was Turkey’s main export market, buying some $1.8 billion worth of goods from the country. In the first two months of 2022, Turkey’s shipments to Europe’s largest economy amounted to $3.2 billion.

In February, the U.S. ranked second at $1.3 billion, followed by the U.K at $1 billion. Turkey also shipped another $1 billion worth of goods to Italy. Iraq emerged as the fifth largest export destination at around $1 billion.
Those five nations accounted for some 32 percent of the country’s all exports in February.

The share of the key manufacturing industry in Turkey’s exports was as much as 94 percent, while the agriculture sector accounted for 3.4 percent, data from TÜİK also showed.

The high-tech products represented 3 percent of the manufacturing industry’s exports, generating $530 million in revenues.

The share of medium-high and medium-low products were 33 percent and 30 percent, respectively, while revenues from the shipment of those products amounted to $6.3 billion and $5.7 billion.

Turkey’s imports in February, on the other hand, showed a 44.5 percent increase on an annual basis to stand at $27.9 billion. On a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, imports fell by 3 percent from January.

The country’s imports from Russia amounted to $3.86 billion, while China came second at $3.2 billion. Turkey also purchased $1.8 billion worth of goods from Germany and imports from the U.S and India stood at $1bn each. The share of those five countries in Turkey’s imports was 39.4 percent.

In February, Turkey paid a total of $23.1 billion for the intermediate goods it bought from other countries, marking an increase of 59.4 percent from a year ago. Imports of consumer goods, however, declined by 2.3 percent on an annual basis to $2.1 billion. Turkey’s capital goods imports also grew 2.3 percent to $2.7 billion.

On the back of the February, data, Turkey’s exports stood at $37.6 billion in the first two months of the year, making a strong increase of 21.4 percent in the same period of 2020.

Imports also rose by 49.2 percent to $55.7 billion in January-February.

The foreign trade deficit climbed 180 percent on an annual basis to $18.2 billion in the first two months.